im a total beginner learning how to knit. im doing my first practice square, but its becoming triangular as mysterious extra stitches keep appearing. i started with about 25 stitches, and fifteen rows in i had 38!! after another ten rows i have 45. what am i doing wrong???? im really confused.

Vinny,
I'll only be a month old tomorrow. I'm sure there will be others along shortly to help you out.
I know that for me I was picking up extra stitches because I was trying to go too fast and not really paying attention. Try to slow down and really look at where you are putting the needle in through.
Make sure that it is going through the stitch loop and not something below that along with the stitch. Look after EACH stitch to see that you have only picked up one. I know that sounds silly but until 'we' get familiar with how to do knitting I think we really have to pay attention.
I know that once I started really watching what I was doing and counting stitch by stitch and then making sure I counting after EACH row for a time I started getting much better.
Hope this helps until someone MUCH more experienced gets here.
Welcome to the knitting world and to this forum that I love,
Susie

lol...well i am certainly NOT much more experienced but this one i do know i think Susie is right about slowing down. we get so excited about "getting it" that we move too fast and things start going wonky.

I find usually the issue is when you start the new row. You have to make sure you are bringing the yarn around back of the needle and not up over the needle. When you first turn your work the yarn is likely going to be hanging down in front. If you bring the yarn up and over to begin working it will look like there is another stitch that needs to be worked. If you play with the yarn a bit you will see what i am talking about. Make sure that you bring it under and behind the needle and not up and over the needle.

this is assuming you are doing garter stitch (knitting every row) too. If you are purling when you turn your work you need to make sure your work is down in front when you start. never bring the work up over the needle unless you are actually trying to create the extra stitch (yarn over). If you are knitting and purling in the same row make sure the yarn comes between the needles and not over them.

the best way to combat it is to count stitches on your rows every time until you are use to what you are doing.

__________________
Brenda

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Another thing that might be happening: if you're switching from Knit to Purl within a row make sure you always have the yarn in the back to knit and in the front to purl. Don't forget to put that yarn back where it goes each time...if you don't, you will add stitches...eeek!

And the most important thing of all...THIS HAPPENS TO EVERYONE in the beginning! I increased stitches for weeks before I knew people actually did it on purpose, LOL!

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My most frequent reason for making this mistake when I was new was bringing the yarn up and over the needle after the last stitch in the row. Go get your knitting & see how this happens.....bring your working yarn up and over the needle....do you see how that causes the "legs" of the last stitch on the needle to look like TWO stitches? Now, bring the yarn over the front toward you. Now it's one stitch again, right? That's how it SHOULD look.

thanks everyone, i think im doing a combination of these things, i went a lot slower and a couple of times i went into the stitch in the wrong place and would have created an extra one if i hadnt been going slow enough to notice.

i couldnt work out what was going wrong until now, i was making holes by dropping stitches and still they kept increasding!!!!

Just adding an idea......I am using stitch counters to help count my stitches when I am working on something long. I place a marker every 10 stitches so I can count the row faster. I can also see where I have made a mistake. If there are only 9 stitches between the markes I know where to look for the problem.